NEET No More!
by topshelfpenguin
Summary: When Ashiya and Maou decide to push Urushihara into getting a job, the shut-in finds himself caught up with the hijinks of the neighborhood teenagers. How will the fallen angel deal with the frustrations and difficulties that await him in the real world?
1. Prologue

**_DISCLAIMER: I don't own Hataraku Maou-sama! or any of its constituent characters, locations, etc. All credit for the series is owed to Satoshi Wagahara, Oniku, Naoto Hosoda, and White Fox. This story is a work of my imagination, written purely for my own enjoyment and for that of others sharing my interest in the series, and I do not intend to reap financial gain from this writing. I would like to thank the writers, illustrators, animators, voice actors, etc. who worked to make this series possible. :)_**

* * *

_Prologue_

"Well… shit." Urushihara grumbled beneath his breath. Ashiya watched disdainfully from behind the fallen angel as he struggled through a castle in a poorly made RPG.

"Aren't you a little old for things like that?" the blonde general asked, a hint of sarcasm in his voice. "Besides, you have fought far more interesting battles in real life. How can you find something like that entertaining?"

Urushihara said nothing in return, instead distractedly fumbling with his left hand for a bottle of soda that sat beside his laptop. He crinkled his nose in disdain behind Ashiya's back and took a swig from the bottle before restarting the level.

Alsiel decided it best to separate the NEET from his games once and for all. It was about time that Lucifer began pulling his weight.

"Dammit no no NO DAMMIT!" Urushihara began to scream at the computer screen, his mouse clicks becoming increasingly violent as his avatar was pummeled to death by a burly man with a club. "NO! NO! GO TO HELL!" he screamed, as the words "MISSION FAILED" mocked him from the screen in large, flashing letters. He slumped over and buried his face in the carpet, letting out a defeated groan.

Ashiya saw the opportunity and sprung.

"Hey! What're you doing?!" Lucifer protested as his laptop was taken away by the blonde.

"I'm confiscating this." Ashiya said. "You should be able to find better uses of your time than on those games. From this day on-"

"Yeah yeah…" Urushihara grumbled sarcastically "I get it." Although he was annoyed, at the moment he stood no chance of resistance against his fellow general, partly because his human form lacked the power, and partly because the last few months spent immobile had drained his body of nearly all of its former strength. He decided to let this matter go, as long as the laptop was returned before his PASTA ran out of charge.

The purple-haired NEET reached into his udon-box enclosure to retrieve the portable gaming device. Before his small, keyboard-sweaty hands could reach into the cardboard tube to grab his game, however, the PASTA was in the clutches of none other than his fellow general and housemate. He watched, powerless, as his gadgets were locked in a cabinet, the key placed securely in Ashiya's apron. Urushihara had neither the means, nor the resolve, to open those cabinets.

"Dude, what the hell?" he groaned and gave the man a look of sarcasm and disappointment. Urushihara was in no mood to put up with Ashiya this evening.

"I believe that you may be misunderstanding me, Urushihara," He said, the sounds of both agitation at the NEET's behavior and pride in this little victory could be heard in his voice. "The laziness stops now."

"Nope. I believe that you are misunderstanding me, _Ashiya_," the shut-in mocked his housemate's alias, "take away my PASTA all you like, but if you take the laptop away, how can I do research to get our magic back?"

It was a terrible argument, and Urushihara knew that he had lost. Had he needed confirmation of this, he could have found it on the gloating face of the blonde before him.

"What do you want?" he grumbled.

"It has been our master's decision," Alsiel began in a highly practiced manner "that this last year you have spent in our apartment has been sufficient to prevent your arrest. Now, you should still proceed with caution, but Maou-sama has asked me to arrange for you to find a job and begin functioning as a useful member of this household. You are expected to begin your search tomorrow."

At this, the purple-haired demon was left speechless. Leaving the house meant leaving this little paradise of his. It meant people and manners and labor.

_No!_ _Surely this must be a nightmare. No. Please, no!_ He thought desperately.

"You're just pulling my leg, Ashiya." he stuttered nervously, trying desperately to laugh off his fear. "You wouldn't make me go outside, would you? If you do, I'll… I'll… kill someone! Yes! I'll kill someone so you'll have to keep me inside again."

Alsiel looked over at Lucifer calmly and coldly.

"If you do that," Urushihara felt trapped as the blonde slowly leaned toward him "I can assure you that you won't come back to Ente Isla in one piece."

He knew immediately that he had lost. There was no weeding his way out of this one.

"I'll start looking tomorrow," he said with a sigh.

* * *

_**I know that this prologue was pretty short. I intend to write some longer ones once I get the plot going a bit and figure out some of the bigger details. I appreciate your reviews. See you later!**_

_**- topshelfpenguin**_


	2. Chapter 1

_Chapter 1:_

"This totally sucks." Urushihara muttered indignantly under his breath as he walked through the crowded street. It was around noon, and the NEET, after four hours of stalking the streets for "help wanted" signs and meeting nothing but rejection, desired to return to his udon box fort for a nap. Unfortunately, going to the apartment was not an option. With the chores for the day already done, Ashiya was staying home, engaging in his research. The blonde haired demon would definitely not tolerate Lucifer's reappearance until he had found a job, or at least until it was time for dinner.

He continued slowly down the street, checking each shop window for employment opportunities. With most people on their lunch break, the smell of food wafting out of the street's restaurants taunted him. The delicious scent coming from one barbeque restaurant was particularly tantalizing. A loud growl escaped from his stomach.

Lucifer sighed. Oh how he wanted to eat!

Reaching into his jeans pocket, he found that the money he had nabbed from Maou's wallet was enough to buy a snack from the corner store. He had been in Earth's human stores a few times before, but seemed to have forgotten the blinding rainbow of packaged foods that each shelf held. Initially disoriented by the great variety before him, Urushihara came to realize that he looked like a child as he stared longingly at the snacks. After many minutes spent in careful deliberation over what to eat, he finally bought cookies and a large bottle of cheap soda. For good measure, he slipped a pack of gum into his jeans pocket.

_I can't forget that I'm a demon._ He thought, a sly, cheeky smile spreading across his face as he committed the petty crime. After paying for his cookies and his drink, he found a bench, plopped down on one side, and began devouring his meal of junk food.

"Shouldn't you be in school, kid?" a dry, agitated voice croaked from the other side of the bench. Lucifer turned to find an old man staring disdainfully at him, clutching his hands over the knotted cane standing between his feet.

"Shouldn't you be in a nursing home, old man?" the fallen angel sneered at the geezer, who was currently aghast at the great nerve of the purple-haired youth who sat before him. It brought him great pleasure to see the man's expression, a mix of shock, embarrassment, and offense, before him.

As the old man hobbled away, Urushihara began to reconsider his earlier infatuation with the indoors. Although leaving the house meant working and talking to others, seeing others' faces like this sure was entertaining.

With the rest of the bench now open, Urushihara had the luxury of laying his legs along the bench sideways. He celebrated this with a swig of his syrupy drink. The bench was hard and still a bit wet from last night's rain, making it difficult to get comfortable. He sighed lightly, leaning back and draping his head upside-down over the armrest.

"Well," Urushihara muttered to himself. His hair reached down and just barely touched the ground; he swayed his head back and forth, watching it lightly brush the pavement. "I'm tired and want to nap, but I guess this beats being around that stingy house-husband all day. Still, I'd much rather be alone at the apartment than have to deal with all this stupid human traffic all day. At least there I have my video games."

_Video games_. At the thought, he was reminded of the game he had left at home - some other player had surely raided his base by now. Letting out a sigh, he closed his eyes and unintentionally started napping.

"U-Urushihara?!"

The shut-in was awoken by a familiar voice, coming from directly above him. With an annoyed expression, he squinted open one eye to see who had disturbed him. He sat up in shock when the speaker proved to be Chiho, who looked at him with a mix of fear and wonder. The time must have been around 4 pm, since she was still dressed in her school uniform.

"Uh… Chiho…Hi. Why are you here?" he stuttered.

"_Really_, Urushihara," she dragged out her words in an attempt to intimidate the purple boy, "_you're_ asking _me_? I thought you weren't allowed to leave the house. I hope you have Maou's permission and aren't planning something again." She took out her cellphone, threatening to call Maou and report what she believed to be Urushihara's second betrayal. Chiho tilted her head expectantly, giving Lucifer a chance to explain himself.

"Chiho Sasaki, I swear that I'm not-"

"Chiho," a calm voice said from the other side of the bench. Urushihara turned his head quickly to see another girl standing over him, one whom he had never encountered before. She had long, brown hair and a mild, shy expression on her face. "Does he also know this Maou guy?"

Urushihara, from what little he did know about the nature of teenage human girls, was able to determine that the mystery girl must have been a friend of Chiho's and had heard about her infatuation with Maou.

"Yeah." Chiho responded. Urushihara could hear a hint of disapproval in her voice, and responded to it with a subtle, practiced glare. "He's a freeloading NEET that lives in his apartment."

At these words, the friend's face began to change. Her once shy face burst into a wide, maniacal smile as excitement rose up within her.

"Sasachiiiii," the brunette squealed, hands to her face in excitement, "you never told me that there were _three_ men in that apartment! Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh!" Chiho's expression turned to one of horror as she tried to calm the girl, interrupting the other's incomprehensible, high-pitched ranting with screams of protest.

Urushihara silently watched all of this happen, partially terrified, partially intrigued. After around a minute of this excitement had passed, and once Chiho had successfully calmed the friend, the three spent a moment looking at each other curiously.

"Chiho, who the hell is this girl?" Urushihara said in a monotone, pointing nonchalantly at the blushing schoolgirl by Sasaki's side.

"How rude, Urushihara! She's my friend and classmate, Kaori Shouji."

"Fine then." He turned to her, his eyes falling on a face with glazed over eyes and a goofy smile, once again deep in some strange fantasy. He tried to give her a proper greeting nonetheless, in hopes of placating Chiho. "Hello. I'm Urushihara. Nice to meet you."

Chiho nudged the girl, who came to her senses and returned to her quiet character.

"Uh. Hi. You can call me Shouji." she said, trying not to look at Urushihara, lest she begin imagining more dirty things.

"Kaori," Chiho interjected "I need to get to work soon. Don't you also have a project to finish? Let's get going now."

Shouji nodded dejectedly and the two girls began walking away. Seemingly on impulse, the girl shouted back at Lucifer, "Hey! You're a high-schooler like me too? The three of us could meet up this Friday and you can give me details on this Maou guy. Chiho never tells me anything good!"

"Kaori!" Chiho protested, pulling the friend away.

Urushihara stared at the pair in disbelief as they departed. He had never encountered a human like her before and hoped that she was an oddity. That exchange had left him confused and disturbed.

His stomach grumbling again, he remembered his soda and cookies. Urushihara unscrewed the now warm drink and finished off the last few sips. The cookies were then gone within a few minutes. Strangely, he suddenly found himself thinking about his video games again. He had intended to clear level 17 of one of his PASTA games that evening, and, as a result, found himself going through symptoms of withdrawal.

_Games_, he thought the very things that had consumed his days and nights for over a year now, his favorite human creation, screamed for his attention. He grew restless and decided to continue his forced search for employment. Making sure not to let himself be softened by the human world, Urushihara carefully deposited his trash on the ground, not in the bin.

He began walking again. It was around the time when working people began making their way home for the day, so tired looking men and women crowded the streets in their suits, uniforms, and dresses. With this, Urushihara was reminded that he too would be doing that soon. He sighed heavily and continued looking for employment.

A few blocks down the street, he found an answer to his wish for video games. Before him stood a store specializing in videos, books, games, and fan merchandise. He looked into the window, beholding a display of the most recently released merchandise. Seized by curiosity and a great sense of longing, he then entered the shop, ignoring his empty pockets.

With his gaze fixed to the floor, the purple haired demon slowly paced along the shelves, mourning his bankruptcy. Along the shelves were his favorite games, with themed posters, figurines, and clothing to match. Around him, teenagers and young adults, able to afford the merchandise, filled their arms with it and made their way to the counter.

Unable to bear the torment much longer, he glumly made his way for the door. As Urushihara passed the checkout, however, his attention was caught by a red flyer, hanging behind the cashier.

**_Help wanted. Ask for Yoshida_**.

"Score." he said under his breath, a grin spreading across his face.

* * *

_**Hi All! That's it for chapter one. A note on that friend of Chiho's, whom I introduced - she is not an OC, as she is supposed to be that fangirling classmate you see at Chiho's school (the one with the thing for boys love). I got her information off of MyAnimeList. See ya later!**_

_**- topshelfpenguin**_


	3. Chapter 2

_Chapter 2:_

"We'll look forward to working with you, Mister Urushihara... P-please wait one minute while I go into the stockroom to get your uniform."

Both agitated at having to get a job and delighted at the outcome of his interview, Urushihara watched as the owner of the store, a tall, nervous young man who couldn't have been older than 30, left to retrieve the final confirmation of the shut-in's employment. Urushihara's face, which usually held either a plotting, malicious smirk or an expression of complete apathy, was now dominated by a goofy, yet still mischievous, little grin. Although he would have preferred staying at home all day, a job at a video game store was the next best option.

_This will be easy,_ he thought to himself. _Compared to the labor I 'm forced to do at the Castle Overlord, working under this guy should be a piece of cake._

The manager, Yoshida, struck Urushihara as an extremely lax and incapable employer. With short blonde hair and light-blue framed glasses, the man obviously wanted to be a trendsetter, but, in reality, his gait and demeanor was unmistakably nerdy. He was boring, too, a person seemingly unable to muster any emotion greater than a nervous smile. Urushihara reminded himself that, in spite of Yoshida's weak personality, he would need to make a good impression on the store owner in order to keep his job.

_I wouldn't want to get Satan angry, now would I?_ He recalled the beating he had gotten the last time he had angered Maou. Failure to find and keep a job would surely earn the fallen angel a punishment as unpleasant as before.

Urushihara shifted uncomfortably in his chair. His shoulders felt odd against the hard chair back. Even after more than a year of living as a human on Earth, he still wasn't used to having something pressed against his wingless shoulder blades. This feeling of the hard, cold plastic reminded him that he was no longer the great general he used to be. It dissolved all the security and strength that came with his demonic form, reminding Urushihara of his weakness now, as nothing more than a short, skinny, teenage human boy.

The manager reentered the staff room and laid a neatly folded uniform before him, which consisted of a dark-green polo t-shirt, black trousers, and a name tag on a lanyard. He was meekly reminded that any damage to the clothes would come out of his paycheck, which could be expected at the end of the month.

"Uh… thanks, sir." Urushihara said, taking the clothes.

The two stared at each other, each hesitating to speak. At last, the manager broke the silence.

"Well, th-that's all for today. I'll expect to see you here again at nine thirty tomorrow morning. We don't have a locker for you just yet, so take home your uniform and bring it in tomorrow, but be sure to change here instead of at home, to keep the clothes neat." The man's words trailed off as he spoke. The uniform, name tag, and papers were placed in a plastic bag bearing the store logo.

Lucifer nodded vacantly as he stood up, now relieved of the chair's oppressive plastic back. He picked up the bag and, holding the bundle to his chest, was escorted out of the staffroom by his new boss. After giving a polite goodbye to the man and walking out of the store into the street, the demon general's serious face took on a small smirk.

_I bet that you thought I couldn't get a job, Ashiya. Heh! Just wait. I'll be awesome at this job and beat Maou's salary in no time at all!_

Slouched over in his posture, yet unmistakably pleased with himself, Urushihara began his walk back to Castle Overlord. Although there was a storm due to hit the area within the hour, evident in the strong wind and eerie calm that could be felt in the area, he went at his usual slow pace. Maybe he didn't know about the weather forecast, or maybe he just didn't care.

A sprinkling of rain began to fall. The sky, already dark with clouds, was beginning to darken further with the coming of the storm.

Of course, he gave it little heed. Rather, he liked the quiet that was settling over the area. It was peaceful, allowing him time alone with just his thoughts.

What Lucifer thought about during this walk wasn't anything particularly meaningful or poetic, nor was it particularly evil, like one would expect. Rather, he was puzzling over one of the more difficult video games he had lying around the apartment. He simply wouldn't allow those sadistic creators of _Battlefrogs_ to beat him at the game of cruelty, let alone have their game get the better of him.

After a half hour of walking, Urushihara arrived home, a bit wet from the now steady rain. He pounded roughly on the door to the apartment, which was shortly answered by a disgruntled Ashiya, still clad in his apron, with a dinner of soup cooking on the stove. The blonde looked down at Urushihara suspiciously.

"This is earlier than I expected of you. You're on time. You're_ behaving_."

"Pffft!" he crinkled his nose. "I had nothing better to do and didn't want to stand in the rain."

Ashiya stared at Urushihara suspiciously. He seemed to be considering what trouble his roommate had gotten into that day, whether he had committed any more crimes, what was in the bag, and whether it had been a good idea to let the NEET go out in the first place. Tired of waiting for Alsiel to get out of the doorway, the fallen angel pushed his comrade roughly out of his way, plowing through the doorway and crawling into the udon boxes, which, thankfully, hadn't been thrown away in his absence.

"So you spent the whole day playing around and didn't look for a job." Ashiya sighed, leaving the doorway to stir the soup.

"No. I looked." A bored-looking face peeked out of the udon boxes.

"Then you found nothing?" A hint of hopefulness could be heard in his tired voice.

"I'm set to start work tomorrow morning" Urushihara responded matter-of-factly, hiding his pride in order to annoy his roommate. "I have a uniform and name tag, along with the documents and everything, just in case you don't believe me."

He crawled out of the box and dumped the contents of the bag onto the table in the middle of the apartment. Looking up, Urushihara watched with pleasure as the blonde's face switched between expressions of shock, relief, and slight anxiety. He had emptied the bag haphazardly to bother his fellow general, whose obsession with order was eternally at odds with his complete inability to care about such stupid things. He decided to play a game, counting down to when he thought Ashiya would lose control of himself and start clearing the pile. With Maou's arrival drawing near, he guessed at five seconds.

_Five, _he thought, starting the countdown.

"'Yoshida's Games and Media'?" Ashiya read from the name tag. He looked at Urushihara, evidently confused by the store name. The former-NEET gave the man the most disappointed-looking face he could and was pleased to see Ashiya's expression morph into one of poorly hidden embarrassment.

"It's a store that sells video games, movies, books, and other stuff" he replied in a monotone. "Yoshida's my boss. He runs the place."

_Four._

"So you're shifting your loyalty from Maou-sama to this Yoshida person? I won't allow that to happen. Watch yourself." Ashiya knew better than to let Urushihara off without a warning. The fallen angel was a magnet for trouble, never able, or maybe never willing, to act for anyone's interests other than his own. It wasn't hard to imagine that day-long exposure to video games would distract him from the demons' goal.

"Are you kidding? I wouldn't dare." It wasn't that Urushihara stayed in line purely due to fear of the demon king, but that was how he liked to portray himself. Fear was only _one_ of his reasons, although it was pretty high on the list...

_Three._

The pair stared at each other aggressively. Alsiel silently challenged Lucifer, giving a look of suspicion to remind the petite general of his recent betrayal, while Lucifer dared his roommate to articulate this disdain, employing a head tilt and a small, mocking smile.

_Two._

Ashiya's brow twitched as he struggled to keep eye contact with his roommate. He bit his lip in frustration before giving up and letting out a small, defeated sigh. It was obvious that he knew he was no match against Urushihara in situations like these. The shut-in watched with a smile as the blonde's gaze wandered to the pile on the table again.

_One._

Ashiya looked back up at Urushihara and then back down to the table, obviously wondering whether it would be a good move to neaten the pile, or if it would be another victory for his lazy roommate. Urushihara respected his fellow general for his constant caution and sharp attentiveness, but was always able to take the upper hand when it came to these situations. The strategist had a remarkable talent for seeing into the plans of opponents, but the fallen angel was skilled in reading into others' very core, down to their tiniest thoughts, emotions, and temptations. This enabled him to win over others with a simple stare, but only when he was in the right mindset and wasn't too hungry.

This time, he had finally beaten Ashiya at one of their odd staring contests. Urushihara taunted the blonde demon with a small, sickeningly innocent smile.

_Zero._

Ashiya gave in and silently picked up the now crumpled uniform. Seeing this, Urushihara's face contorted into a wide, devious smirk. He had predicted correctly, as usual.

He looked down as he folded and smoothed the shirt, trying to avoid eye contact, then attempted to change the subject.

"What will your job title be? What are your responsibilities? Did you even ask?"

In truth, Urushihara had no idea what his job involved. He had always assumed that he would probably just talk to people about video games all day and work the register occasionally. He hadn't bothered to ask the manager because, first of all, he didn't want to look stupid in front of his boss and, secondly, he hated having to sit through the man's stuttering for minutes on end. The chair too had bothered him. Oh how he hated those hard backed chairs...

"I-" he started.

"I'm home!" Maou's voice could be heard outside the door. "Ashiya, grab a towel. I'm soaked. What's for dinner?"

"One moment, Maou-sama."

Urushihara was relieved to finally be freed from that conversation. In the doorway stood a tired and windswept Sadao Maou, who, after accepting a towel from his right hand man and using it to dry his wet, black hair almost in a frenzy, threw himself down onto the floor and lay there on his back for a few seconds, staring at the cracks in the ceiling. He turned his head swiftly and made eye contact with Urushihara, who tried his best to find some way to look busy.

In the box, next to his leg, Urushihara found that his PASTA was back to its usual place. He grabbed the device, switched it on and, his face bathed in the pleasant blue light of the screen, began employing his _Battlefrogs_ strategy while listening to Ashiya and Maou describe their boring days to each other.

Chiho spilled the fries again. Jump. Kick. A customer graffitied a bathroom stall. Kick. Run. Jump. Three new books out of the library. Kick. Kick. Egg drop soup for dinner. Run. Jump-

"Yo. Urushihara." Maou spoke seriously, turning to face the boy in the boxes.

He paused the game and peeked out of the box-fort suspiciously. He feared for the worst.

"Uh...yes... sir?"

"First of all, how did you, of all people, manage to get a job in a day when it took me weeks?"

"Just luck, I guess." Urushihara was relieved that he wasn't in for any punishment. Separation from his games all day had been bad enough. Adding onto that the job search, the hunger, and the exposure to people for ten hours, what more could the demon king have wanted from him?

"Second of all, explain to me why Chiho told me that her friend has made plans to meet you tomorrow afternoon."

"What?!" Urushihara pulled himself out of the cardboard tube. "I never agreed to that!" He had thought that Chiho would take his side and save him the trouble of having to deal with that strange girl again, but it was clear that he had been wrong.

"You heard me. She said to tell you that the girl would be expecting you at 4 outside of that cafe down the street from MgRonalds." Maou stared at him for a moment, all at once disappointed, curious, and fatigued. "Urushihara, we just let you off leash. Can't you at least endanger someone we don't know?"

"I swear," he said earnestly. "I ran into the two of them on the street today. I don't plan to do anything with her. To tell the truth, she's kind of weird and so I want to keep my distance." Urushihara tried very hard to look pleading and innocent before Maou.

The demon king sighed hard and decided to let the matter go.

"Fine. I'll believe you for now, but watch yourself. If you get us into any trouble with this girl, or with anyone else, I'm gonna make you wish that you were never born."

Urushihara grumbled in acquiescence, staring past the other two with dead eyes.

"Alright then." Maou stated, obviously tired from his day. "Let's eat already."

* * *

**_Yeah, I know, it was sort of a boring chapter (bluh). I kept it low on fun stuff because of plot and character reasons. The next chapter, however, will be more entertaining and hopefully bring a smile to your face. :)_**

**_And yes, I am aware that Battletoads is not a Playstation game, but the parody was a good one so I decided to stick with it._**

**_- topshelfpenguin_**


	4. Chapter 3

_Chapter 3:_

"This is _not_ what I had in mind,"Urushihara grumbled to himself as he stared boredly at the computer screen. The job at Yoshida's store had fallen far below his expectations.

Sure, he was given a discount on games and merchandise, had flexible hours and a relatively high hourly wage for his position, and spent his days around tons of cool stuff, but he was still disappointed. He didn't want to work. It all felt so pointless. He had thought that this store would be an escape from having to find a real job, but instead found himself staring at a buffering screen in the storeowner's office.

Once Yoshida had learned about Urushihara's talent for computers, he had put the demon to work on the store's system. Despite his lazy appearance, Urushihara worked hard on his first day and, as a result, skipped out on his bagged lunch. In a matter of hours, he had quickly updated the operating systems on the manager's laptop and at the checkout, installed software for the security cameras, and got the TVs and video gaming systems back in working order. The time was about two-thirty and Urushihara was now setting up an email client for the store workers, acting indignant.

"Urushihara," Yoshida said in a quiet monotone from behind him. "You're doing great. Because of your work and because it's your first day, I'll let you off once you finish that email thing."

_Free at last._ Urushihara smiled internally, in spite of his dead-faced outside.

He checked over the settings he had put in place one more time. The email client configuration was finished, with the manager and himself set as admins.

The purple-haired fallen angel ambled into the break room and began changing out of his uniform. He slipped off the polo, folding it up as neatly as he could before putting on his usual purple shirt. After taking off his trousers, folding them, and donning his jeans, he stared at the folded pile grumpily. _Ashiya's folding is always neater._

He tied his sneakers and then put the wrinkled uniform into his new locker and exited the break room.

_Oh wait. Shit! _He put his hands into his pockets. _I've got to spend the afternoon with that freaky teenage girl. Ugh_

"Bye, Urushihara. See you tomorrow!" The cashier waved at him. As it was noon on a weekday, she could get away with that sort of thing, but Urushihara, already dedicated to this job, scowled at her internally for this. The cashier was a delicate woman with wavy, shoulder-length red hair and a sweet exterior that seemed, to Urushihara at least, to be hiding something scheming and ambitious. To others, the strange amount of attention she paid him could be attributed to it being his first day at the store, but he couldn't trust a person who was so courteous and outspoken.

In fact, he couldn't really trust anybody. Nobody trusted him. He had forsaken the angels, betrayed Maou, destroyed Emi's village, tricked Olba, and attacked Chiho, so Urushihara wasn't really in a position to regard anyone as his friend.

He stepped outside and was immediately hit in the face with a blast of humidity. Last night's rain clouds hadn't completely left the area, so the outside air was warm, sticky, and damp. Urushihara felt relieved that he had spent the morning in an air-conditioned store, instead of in their low-tech apartment with a tired, unpleasant Ashiya.

The street was damp and near empty. Nearly everybody had gotten back to work from their lunch breaks and the area was practically vacant as a result. Urushihara was hungry, having skipped out on his own lunch in order to work on the store's computers, and, for once, felt the need for actual food, not just snacks.

_That's weird,_ he thought. Normally, he'd want a snack, rather than a full meal. In spite of his surprise at the whims of his taste buds, the fallen angel decided to humor his cravings and began to look for a restaurant.

He walked for a while, but with no luck. He counted out the change he had in his pocket, dismaying when he found that every place he passed charged more than twice that amount for side dishes. The oppressive air didn't help either. He wasn't used to walking around, let alone in this hot, disgusting humidity. After about ten minutes outside, Urushihara's shirt and scalp were wet with moisture, but he really didn't want to go home to Ashiya's nagging.

_MgRonalds, _he read on the sign of the restaurant beside him. _I could maybe get something there, but that's where Maou works. I'm hungry, but I don't really want to go in there unless I absolutely have to._

There had to be other options. Urushihara turned to look across the street. There was another fast food restaurant, with rows of fried chicken lined up on a rack behind the counter. His mouth watered at the sight.

_Sentucky Fried Chicken. So that's the place? How did Maou seriously see this as a threat to his job at MgRonalds? The place is fucking empty. Maybe I should eat there just to piss him off._ Urushihara smiled mischievously. The streets were empty, so he jaywalked to the front of the Sentucky Place.

He looked casually into the window of the restaurant, then back across the street to MgRonalds, just to make sure Maou wasn't watching him. The demon king was probably off in the back making the specialty black pepper fries, as he was nowhere to be seen. Urushihara turned to look back into the SFC.

_ OH SHIT! _He jumped away from the window, preventing a certain blue-haired individual from catching a glance of him from the inside.

_So this is where Sariel works? _He wasn't afraid of the now powerless archangel, who, after losing in the recent fight against Maou, had continued his job at Sentucky, but Urushihara didn't want anything to do with those he had left behind years ago. He wasn't particularly fond of, or good at, handling awkward conversations.

_ There is no way in hell I'm going in there, so MgRonalds it is._

He half walked, half ran across the street, looking over his shoulder to see if Sariel had noticed him. He probably had, but Urushihara didn't see the archangel making any moves toward him.

"Can I help you?" a tall brunette greeted him from the counter with a practiced smile.

"Um… uh…" Urushihara was still anxious. "Can I talk to Maou… please?" He remembered that getting what he wanted would require some courtesy and that he was expected to blend in, so he dared not forget manners, especially in Maou's presence. Being polite was hard, though, and it took Lucifer effort to spit out these polite buzzwords so foreign to his demon tongue. Overlooking his disgust at having to deal with the woman before him, he forced a shy smile.

"Sure. I'll go get him for you. Please wait a moment, sir." He found her unfailingly sweet grin disgusting and was relieved when the woman turned around to fetch Maou from the back.

At that moment, he felt a slight tingling in his fingertips. Perhaps the brunette at the counter hadn't actually been as cheery as she had seemed. She must have been hiding some intense anxiety behind that smile, because Lucifer suddenly became aware of the misery about her person. He felt a small, but refreshing amount of magic seep into him, and he suddenly didn't feel quite as hungry anymore.

_Maybe I'll just have a snack after all._

"Urushihara, what is this about?" Maou asked from across the counter. "You're supposed to be at this new job of yours." He stared suspiciously at his general, and then fixed his MgRonalds visor. Urushihara pouted as his eyes wandered to the floor.

"I was hungry."

"Shouldn't you be at work? It's your first day."

Lucifer understood the demon king's suspicions. After all, it wasn't lunch hour anymore. Why on earth would a working adult be out and about at that time?

"I fixed all of the computers, then they let me off early." He tried to look as bored and nonchalant as he could, but the man saw right through him. "I was hungry and don't have any money, so I came here."

Maou sighed lightly. His expression turned to one of apathy as he reached into his wallet and retrieved a few crumpled bills. He punched some buttons on the cash register, placed the bills in the bin, pocketed the receipt, then turned to the back of the restaurant and yelled out Urushihara's order.

"One Big Mag burger and one small order of black pepper fries, please!"

"Hey-" he tried to protest the order. His appetite had shrunk, so he didn't want to be obligated to eat that much. Maou then glanced at him agitatedly, causing the fallen angel to fall silent and stare down at his feet in reluctant submission.

"You're going to pay me back for this once you get your paycheck." Maou said.

He nodded and grumbled in agreement.

Ten minutes later, Urushihara sat in the MgRonalds' hard booth, nibbling halfheartedly on a black pepper fry. He wasn't exactly hungry anymore, but Maou had spent his hard-earned money on the food, so he dared not turn it down.

Occasionally, Maou would glance out at him from the kitchen. It was the slowest part of the day for the MgRonalds, so most of the staff just sat around in the back with nothing better to do than join the demon king in monitoring the purple-haired outsider. Of course, they had no clue how or why the youth needed to be watched, but it at least suppressed the boredom that they felt. Urushihara, however, was not happy having the team of almost ten fast-food workers observing his every move.

Glancing at the clock on the wall, Urushihara found, much to his delight, that the time was three thirty. Maou saw him get up from the booth and walked over to the counter.

"I have to meet Chiho and her weird friend," he muttered

"Alright. You can go."

He hadn't yet eaten the burger that Maou had bought for him, so he took it with him out the door. The streets were still empty and the heat and humidity of earlier hours had increased yet further. It felt horrible out there.

_So I'm looking for a café? I don't see anything. But Maou's so freaking clueless that he probably meant that Moonbucks down the street._

Urushihara entered the brown-tinted coffee shop and sat at a stool facing the wall. He had never been inside a Moonbucks before, but found that he liked the cool temperature and dim lighting. The smell of coffee was curious, though, and he was gripped with the urge to purchase a sample of it. The prices, however, convinced him otherwise.

He placed his Big Mag, still in its box, on the table in front of him and stared at it blankly. Quickly growing bored, he began to daze off. A hand tapped him on the shoulder, jolting him out of his thoughts.

"Urushihara," Chiho sounded a bit annoyed. "We're here."

He turned to see Shouji standing behind a disgruntled Chiho Sasaki, both still in their school uniforms. She had probably dragged Chi to the Moonbucks to meet him.

The girl was as odd as ever, sporting a maniacal grin and a cherry-red blush across her face. He could have sworn that he heard her mutter _"Ukeshihara"_ underneath her breath. It didn't take the demon general long, however, to notice the group of three other teens following close behind the pair of girls.

"Um… Sasaki, who are those people?" He pointed apathetically to the group of three students – two boys and a girl – wearing the same uniforms as Shouji and Chiho.

"They're my classmates. These are the Imai Twins," a boy and a girl, both with messy black hair, waved at him, "and this is Matsuo." a cool, moody looking boy, with his shirt unbuttoned to reveal a black t-shirt underneath, nodded slightly at Urushihara.

"I see." he was put off by these unwelcome new companions. He tried to change his slightly annoyed expression to a smile, but it instead came off as a grimace. The fallen angel slipped back into to his usual apathetic stare. "I'm Urushihara."

"From what I heard, Chiho," the male Imai inspected Lucifer with a shy, curious smile on his face. "I would have expected someone older looking. How old is he, a highschooler?"

Urushihara wrinkled his nose slightly in irritation. _She talks about me behind my back?_

"What exactly did you tell them about me, Sasaki?" he asked, remembering courtesies and, in order to put off a better impression, hiding his disgust with a light sigh.

"Well, what is it that you don't want us to know?" the female Imai looked at him boldly. She was a petite, bespectacled girl with two messy braids hanging down her back.

Unlike Chiho, who wore her uniform neatly, the Imai girl looked like she had been rolling down a hill. Her skirt was worn and specks of dirt were stuck to her cheek. He noticed her bruised knee and scratched neck. In spite of her sloppiness, the fallen angel decided that he liked her more than Shouji, as the boldness behind this messy appearance displayed that she was something _more_ than the average, weak human teenager. He found her annoying, however, and stared back at her calculatingly.

They locked eyes. Urushihara was reminded yet again that she was no weakling. Imai had an intense fire in her eyes, one he had never before seen in a human. He watched with hidden delight as she feigned strength while her confidence began to waver. Of course, why wouldn't it? She didn't know it, but she was looking a demon straight in the eye. A normal person would freak out at the sheer terribleness of a stare from Lucifer, but she kept her ground for a while. He wanted to see how far he could take her, but was interrupted by the moody-looking teenage boy following the group.

"He looks like bad news, Chi." Matsuo muttered coolly from behind Shouji. Urushihara wasn't quite so sure about this kid.

Shouji turned toward Matsuo in protest, a mad glimmer in her eyes.

"No no no! I want to talk to him."

"What about, exactly?" Urushihara looked at her with a fed-up stare. Out of the corner of his eye, Chiho was turning red. Only then did he realize that, in what was seemingly the only expression of anger that she knew, she had been pouting at him this whole time for making a bad impression on her friends.

_ Oops. I don't want to screw this up. I can't have Chiho tattling…_

"Well…" Kaori stared dreamily at the wall. "What's this Maou guy like? How is he between the sheets?"

"Um… what exactly do you mean by 'between the sheets'?"

"Hey, Kaori." Chiho prodded the girl in a frenzy, hoping to end the awkward exchange. "Let's go buy drinks, shall we?" She grabbed the girl and put a hand over her mouth in order to staunch Kaori's manic chuckling. "Urushihara, do you want an iced coffee?"

"Uh. Yeah. Sure." He had never tried it before, but felt curious enough to sample some of the coffee. He spent the next few minutes watching from his stool in silence as Chiho waited for the drinks, yelling at an irrational Shouji to stop fantasizing and asking such odd questions.

He then saw, in the corner of his eye, movement coming from the other three teens, quietly stationed at the seats beside him. He watched as Matsuo, perched on his right, took out a large book to read, Imai, perched at the next seat over, typing something furiously on a laptop while smiling sneakily.

_You don't have to rub it in. _He really wanted his internet right now, but of course he couldn't blow this off. These kids were kind of interesting, he supposed, and the meeting _did_ come with a free drink…

"Okay. We have the orders." Chiho had her hands full as she carried four cups in her arms. Kaori stood behind her, staring off wistfully and holding the remaining two drinks. "Who ordered tea?" she asked cheerily.

Matsuo reached out his hand and then accepted it, not stopping to look up from his book as he took a small sip.

"Uh…Hot coffee?" Chiho looked at the beverage, wondering why one of them would have written that down as an order, given the heat outside. The female Imai snatched the cup from her hand.

"Iced drinks are for the weak." she smirked at the rest of the group as she took a sip, not flinching from the pain of the steaming liquid. Urushihara did catch a small tear well up in the corner of her eye, however, and could sense the pain she was feeling from a tiny tingling of magic at his fingertips. He didn't really care about her distress, but rather enjoyed the profit he reaped from Imai's foolishness.

"Aaaand iced coffee for Urushihara." Chiho smiled and placed the cup in front of him. He muttered thanks emotionlessly.

He took a sip. His eyes opened wider in surprise as he took a sip of the cold, heavily sweetened drink. Urushihara had never had iced coffee before, and looked back at Chiho in an expression of delighted shock. She responded with a smug grin.

He returned to the sweet, brown nectar, ignoring the world around him as he lost himself in his drink.

"So, Urushihara," the male Imai squeaked. Urushihara looked up from his beverage, agitated. "Chiho has said a lot about this Maou guy, but nothing about you. Tell us about yourself."

"Uh… well." Urushihara wasn't sure what to say. He hadn't really thought about his cover story much, but he figured that he would be able to trick the teens pretty easily. "What is it you want to know?"

"How old are you? Are you a high-schooler?" Shouji tilted her head inquisitively.

_What is my registered age again?_

"I'm eighteen." Urushihara stated boredly. "And no, I'm not a student."

"You sure look younger than eighteen, shorty. You're pale and skinny, too. What a weakling…" the messy-haired girl's comments trailed off, as she no longer addressed these statements to Urushihara, but rather began grinning to herself.

"Excuse me?" Urushihara glared at her.

"Nomi. That's rude." Chiho reproached her friend. Urushihara was surprised to see Chiho side with him. It seemed that he had been successful in making a good impression on her friends, and she seemed satisfied with his behavior.

"My apologies, then." Imai snuck a small victory grin in Urushihara's direction, seemingly challenging him to reply.

_Is she trying to size me up? She certainly doesn't know who she's dealing with. _He looked away with an air of ease and carelessness in order to annoy her. She, not bothered by this, returned to typing furiously on her laptop.

Suddenly, Urushihara remembered the burger that he had brought with him earlier. He returned to staring at it as the teens began talking among themselves, leaving him out of their conversation.

_Would it be alright if I just went home now? I want to get out of this. I want my internet back. _He sighed and began to daze off again. He wasn't thinking about games this time around, but rather mourning the great depths to which he had fallen, from general, to rebel, to shut-in, to the video-game minion of a weak, antisocial human.

"Urushihara," Chiho said from behind him. "I have a late shift tonight, which means that I'll be arriving at MgRonalds just as Maou leaves. Would you like to come with me so that you can meet up with him?"

_Freedom! A way out!_

"Sure," he said, remembering to keep up an impression of apathy and coolness. He hopped down from the stool, taking his drink with him, but leaving the burger.

"What, don't you want it?" Shouji looked at him with her default expression of gentleness, cocking her head.

"You guys can have it." He responded.

Matsuo reached his hand out lazily to take the burger, but not before it was snatched away by Nomi Imai. She thrust open the box, took a bite, and chewed the burger challengingly, staring at Urushihara. The fallen angel sighed, sipped his drink, and then followed Chiho.

"See ya!" Chiho said.

"Thanks for having me." Urushihara muttered as he went out the door.

* * *

_**Yup. A total OC-splosion this chapter. Don't worry, though - the canon characters are not going away anytime soon. **_

_**Let's face it, Urushihara doesn't have any Earth friends and next to nothing is known about Chiho's classmates. I felt inclined, however, to write within this little corner of Hataraku Maou-sama!'s characters, so the OCs are necessary to make a story that's more than just Urushihara and Chiho walking around and occasionally having boring conversations. I hope that this can maybe justify the rapidly expanding, non-canon cast.**_

_**I really appreciate comments, criticism, and review. I have almost the entire plot planned out already, but this story does have the option of expanding, so if you really want to see something, you can always tell me, I guess. **_

_**Have a nice day!**_

**-topshelfpenguin**


	5. Chapter 4

_Chapter 4_

"Um… Urushihara," Chiho turned to face the fallen angel as they waited, to his annoyance, law-abidingly, to cross the street. Urushihara picked his gaze up from the sidewalk.

"Hmmm?" he responded questioningly.

"Imai and Shouji… they didn't bother you or anything, right?" The pair was given the signal to cross. He followed behind the girl sluggishly, frowning slightly in annoyance.

To be honest, Urushihara had found the two girls to be rather irritating. That being said, playing around with them was an opportunity to stave off his immense boredom. The more aggressive of the pair of teenage girls seemed particularly easy to mess with. His mind began to wander: What interesting things could he get her to do? How far was she willing to go to prove a point? He snapped back into reality when he remembered Chiho's question.

"No. It's fine." It was an obvious lie, passed off as manners, but getting to see that teenager again would require some politeness. He couldn't mess up an opportunity to match himself up with a girl who was so much more interesting than any of the humans he knew. Plus, free food came with the deal.

"Alright then." Chiho frowned a bit, seemingly hit with a pang of guilt. She was obviously not convinced, but dropped the topic.

"Listen, Chiho Sasaki." Urushihara tried to fix things for her. "I can tell that your weird friend wants me to see me again so that she can have her sexual fantasies or whatever. I don't really mind and, to be honest, the first meeting with these people has been rather interesting. Don't worry about it."

Chiho stared at the demon curiously. She nodded slowly, not breaking eye contact. Urushihara looked back at her with his usual expression - emotionless, with his eyes managing to look sluggish and tired in spite of their vibrant purple hue. An understanding was between the two: Chiho would allow Urushihara to meet her friends, in spite of her lack of faith in him, but any misbehavior would put him at the demon king's mercy. Oh, the risks Lucifer took for the sake of entertainment!

Chiho opened the MgRonald's door.

"Good afternoon, Maou!" Chiho returned to her usual disposition and waved cheerily to her coworker, who stood behind the counter. The demon king greeted her politely.

"Urushihara behaved himself, right?" Maou pointed at him, his face displaying his low expectations for the fallen angel.

"I-" Urushihara began in defense, before Chiho interrupted him.

"Actually, Maou." She was cheerful and bubbly, as she always was around Maou, in spite of the irritation both of the demons next to her felt at each other's presence. "He left a really good impression on my friends, surprisingly, and they want to see him again."

_Maybe she's not so dumb after all… _Urushihara thought to himself.

"Is that so?" Maou was obviously skeptical.

"Yeah!" She tilted her head in a way that could be seen as flirting by anyone, except a blockhead like Maou. "Shouji said we'll meet up again tomorrow after school."

_Tomorrow. About four o'clock. Got it! _He was a bit frustrated that she had made the plans without his permission, but was, at the same time, glad that Chiho had granted him an escape from spending his afternoon in an oppressive apartment with his nagging fellow general.

The rest of the time with at MgRonalds was uneventful and boring for Urushihara. She chatted with Maou playfully in the back room, unsuccessfully hinting at him to go on a date with her. He listened to the pair for a while, but soon drifted off into thinking about his job. He worried whether Yoshida's next tasks for him would be worse than before.

_I hate working._

Since the MgRonalds shifts that week had been set up in such a way that Chiho began work as Maou left, Urushihara soon left the high school girl at the fast food restaurant and was carted home by the tired demon king.

They spoke little on the first half of the walk home. Maou walked with his bicycle, staring blankly ahead as Urushihara lingered a few paces behind, staring at the ground. Every so often, Satan would look back at him, in order to make sure the fallen angel was behaving. Eventually, Maou spoke.

"I'm interested to know how you, of all people, managed to leave a good impression on Chiho's friends." He looked amused and slightly skeptical, smiling and raising an eyebrow as he glanced at Urushihara.

"I'm not completely incompetent!" The fallen angel protested.

"Don't worry." Maou smiled slightly at him. "I know that very well… It's just funny that you're so old and still managed to blend in with a bunch of children, let alone human children."

"Same goes for you and Alsiel…" he grumbled in return. _Why the hell is he being so friendly? How sickening… he's probably trying to butter me up._

"Heh… I guess you're right, but we're not nearly as old as you are." Maou didn't seem to notice as his purple-haired companion rolled his eyes in response to the teasing. "Hey, Urushihara. Could you tell me about what happened with Chiho and her friends today?"

_Wow. That was the least subtle thing I have ever seen. _

Urushihara glared at the demon king impatiently, who returned an apathetic stare. Maou's expression of cluelessness gnawed at Urushihara. He gritted his teeth, knowing that the king's disgusting look of ignorance wouldn't go away until he spoke.

"Ugh. Fine." he grumbled.

"Well?"

"We went to the Moonbucks across the street from MgRonalds." Urushihara began.

"Yeah. I saw that. If Chiho or any of her friends bought you anything, you had better repay them once you get your paycheck."

"I know! I know!" Urushihara moaned. He was tired and his temples had begun throbbing painfully. "Anyway, she introduced me her friends and then we talked for a few minutes. Then I left."

"They're all normal, average humans?"

"I know you're skeptical because of what happened with Suzuno and Sariel, but I can say with confidence that none of these kids will pose any threat." Urushihara turned his gaze nonchalantly off into the distance, sure that no trouble could ever come from his playing around with the human teenagers.

The pair neared the Villa Rosa apartment building as they walked, fatigued and sweaty from the day's heat and humidity. Upon nearing the property's surrounding wall, an angry female voice rang out, piercing both of the demons' ears.

"Satan! Why are you letting your murderous NEET off leash!?" Emi rushed toward them from behind the wall, pointing her manicured finger at them as if it were her holy sword, Better Half. Urushihara placed Maou between himself and the hero, peeking out to grumble his snide reply.

"I'll have you know, Emilia, that I now have a job and am perfectly capable of taking care of myself. I'm not a kid. You, on the other hand, are unable to be a functioning adult and constantly turn to us for help. Hell, you wouldn't even have a wallet if it weren't for us." He had gained confidence with each word, now starting to sneer from behind the demon king, who was beginning to look annoyed at his general's conduct. Maou stepped aside and allowed fallen angel to feel the full force of Emi's wrath, knowing he deserved what came next.

"Urushihara," she hissed, her glare beating down on him from above. "That wallet would not have been lost if you hadn't dared to shoot at us that night, you sorry excuses for conquerors need to be kept in line, and I'm sure that your new boss is just as disappointed in you as your old one always is."

Emi looked back at Maou in expectation, rage boiling up inside her and turning her face a bright cherry red. The man avoided her gaze and instead waved to Ashiya, who could be seen peeking out the apartment window, clearly concerned at the arrival of the hero.

"Maou!" Emi fumed. Ashiya opened the door and walked down the stairs.

"So… Ashiya… what will we have for dinner later?" Maou scratched his head nervously. Ashiya noticed the situation quickly and responded, starting a conversation that freed them both from having to deal with a now murderous Emi.

"I guess I'll just have to deal with you myself." Emilia's hand began bristling with energy. Sparks of white electricity jumped from her palm and danced between her fingers. The holy sword materialized.

_Does she intend to stab me?_ Lucifer was surprised that she'd dare to expend her precious holy magic in a fit of rage. She held herself responsible for the trouble caused by the three demons, so the shock of finding him outside of the apartment, combined with his snide taunts, must have thrown her over the edge. _Shit. I'm not prepared this time,_ he thought.

"Come on now, Emilia. There's no need to resort to this. Let's be adults here." Maou looked at Emi with a melancholy disappointment, resting his hand on his hip and tilting his head. Emi probably couldn't see it, but Urushihara noticed a small amount of panic in the king's voice. The woman snapped suddenly out of her fit of rage and put away her sword.

"He isn't worth my energy anyway," she growled at Urushihara, but began to calm down. "By the way, Maou, I came here to ask about what Chiho told me. Is it true that you're letting your NEET housemate hang around with her friends?" Her voice was now devoid of its previous rage, but Emi still sounded concerned.

"Yeah." Maou replied. Urushihara could tell that he was overlooking her rudeness in order to avoid further violence from the hero. Ashiya, on the other hand, stood behind Maou livid, his eye twitching in irritation.

"Why on earth would you trust him?"

"Well…"

Urushihara watched as the demon king and the hero began the conversation that occurred nearly every time they met – he was up to something and it was her job to stop him, he had better watch his back, et cetera. Lucifer quickly grew tired of the pair's exchange and started to sneak his way up the stairs and into the apartment. With Maou and Emi occupied with each other and Ashiya fuming at the hero's disrespect, no one saw him disappear.

He returned to his laptop, glancing at it lovingly, like one would a beloved wife after a long day. It had, in fact, been a long day, so Urushihara was delighted to finally be relieved of his troubles and free to do what he wanted. The stress of having a holy sword pointed at him had faded, so he could finally relax now.

"Ahhh." he sighed in relief, opening the computer. Pale blue light illuminated his face. He returned to his RPG, now confident in his ability to overcome his enemies, and began to play again.

* * *

**_Okay... things are now starting to move a bit. You can expect the next chapters to be loads more interesting than this one - here, I needed to tie up a couple loose ends before going forward. _**

**_Thanks for your viewership, comments, and support. I love hearing whatever you have to say! :D_**

**_See ya!_**

**_-topshelfpenguin_**


	6. Chapter 5

_Chapter 5_

"Hey… uh… Urushihara." Yoshida, looking annoyed, leaned out of his office. "I need your help here for a second."

The red headed cashier had been showing the former NEET the store's shelf organization and labeling system. Lucifer had caught on quickly, committing the system's details to memory in a matter of hours. Now he stood, slouched over as always, before a shelf of DVDs, carrying a box and staring boredly at the titles packed inside, seemingly unaware of the boss's request. His companion spoke in his stead.

"I'll send him over, but can we just finish this shelf?" The ginger smiled sweetly at Yoshida, who, almost as if in response, blushed and returned to inside his office.

Urushihara glanced at her curiously. _Always so cheery,_ he thought. _Does she ever get bored or annoyed? There has to be some way to make her frown…_

He looked away from her suddenly and crinkled his brow.

_Why am I thinking this? I could get fired if she cries__._ Urushihara reached into his box and went back to stacking the books. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that the redhead had stopped working and was staring at him. He stared at her confusedly.

"Oh! I'm sorry." She looked flustered for a moment, and then went back into stacking. "I was just thinking about how you kind of look like this person I know."

_Huh?_

The fallen angel had finished stacking his share of books and took the opportunity to leave the strange redhead. He walked to the shop owner's office a little faster than usual, collapsing the cardboard box as he walked. After sloppily dropping the cardboard into a pile of boxes designated for recycling, he stepped into Yoshida's cramped, back-room office, a perky expression of curiosity in his eyes.

The man sat at his desk, leaning back in the chair and looking all at once annoyed, nervous, and slightly angry. Urushihara sat own uncomfortably in the chair opposite him.

"Now," Yoshida's voice quivered with shy nervousness. A sweaty hand reached out to clutch the computer monitor, turning it to face Lucifer. "Tell me what's going on here."

The demon general frowned at the screen. The screen displayed the store's website. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with the page at first, but closer inspection revealed what Yoshida was so angry about.

The usually brick-red background of the page had been tampered with; there were words watermarked across the screen in small, barely noticeable light-red text. The watermark read:

**i went first. make ur move.**

_WHAT!? _Urushihara looked at the monitor in disbelief. He had been sure to give the website a strong password.

_Somebody has been messing with the webpage?_

The manager continued speaking, his voice and body language becoming increasingly less nervous due to the seriousness of the situation. Yoshida pushed his glasses down his nose and gazed over them towards the fallen angel.

"I trust that this probably wasn't you, but if this happens again, I will hold you personally responsible. Please fix this in the hour before you leave." Urushihara looked up at the man desperately, fearing the loss of his job.

He hadto hold onto this employment. Losing it would not simply make Satan and Alsiel angry and disappointed, but it would be a dent to his pride. He'd once again be forced to stay at home under the househusband's thumb. Yoshida needed to be kept satisfied.

Lucifer fixed the issue within a few minutes. He spent his remaining time at work checking over the site's revision history, visitors, and employee history. There were no records of changes since the day before, and it seemed that none of the employees had done anything to it with the in-store computers either. After changing the passwords to all of Yoshida's Games and Media's public pages, the demon switched out of his staff uniform and left the store.

The weather that day was cooler than it had been the day before. It was the beginning of rush hour, so the streets of town were beginning to fill with people. Tired and annoyed, Urushihara sat at a bench, pondering his current situation.

_How the hell am I supposed to fix this?_

To the outside observer, the fallen angel would look like a bored youth sitting on a park bench, but Urushihara's bored face hid a churning mind.

"Well, you look concerned." A finger prodded the demon general's shoulder and he jumped to face his unknown assailant. Shouji chuckled to herself.

"What?" She seemed more relaxed and normal than usual. "Did you think I was going to attack you?"

Urushihara looked down at the ground in annoyance. His response was a grumbling excuse for his skittishness. Knowing her, he would suffer a better fate if he had been attacked by someone instead. This girl's fantasizing freaked him out a little bit.

"Shouldn't you still be in school?" he tried to sound polite, but it felt like his emotions were showing though his eyes, piercing Shouji's confidence like daggers. She looked away from him and blushed.

"So you're that type after all…" he heard her say under her breath.

"What type?"

"Nothing… it's just that, for a person as young as you are, you have absolutely no clue how normal school hours work, do you? It's almost four-thirty. You were supposed to meet us at four today."

So it was. Urushihara didn't carry a watch or a phone with him, but he remembered that his normal hours of work went from nine to four. He would remember that in the future.

"Oh…" The fallen angel shrugged.

"Hey," the girl pulled him away from his thoughts. His eyes suddenly focused and he turned his head to see her smiling at him in with almost insane intensity. "Do you not want to hang out with us again today?"

He flinched internally at the thought of being stranded with Shouji and her strange thoughts, but was reminded of the free food and drinks that came with the deal.

"Sure."

Five minutes later, he sat at a table with Chiho and her friends, sipping a cup of iced coffee. Shouji was back to her usual maniacal enthusiasm, alternating between squealing and asking questions. Lucifer didn't listen to what she was saying much. He instead took his PASTA out of his pocket and tried to play _Battlefrogs_. The current situation at work, however, returned to him and he soon decided to put down the game and think about the problem.

_Hacking seems unlikely and stupid. Someone likely got the password end left that message, probably a kid or someone immature and stupid enough to want to mess with me. I changed the password, so it should be okay, but if they got it once from a careless employee, they could get it again… _

While he thought, Shouji continued to ask him about his "life at home." He nodded "yes" to every question, which seemed a good strategy to put an end to Kaori Shouji's strangeness, as she would get bored of him much sooner.

"Hey guys, do you hear that we have to run a mile tomorrow in gym?" Matsuo was doing his homework – some math problems or something that Urushihara neither cared about nor understood – while sipping his tea.

"Aw crap." The male Imai groaned, burying his head in his hands. He was less sloppy than his sister and much more frail. The boy was in no shape for long distance running.

"Oh come on, dumbass." Imai stood behind him and ground his head into the table. "Don't be a wuss!"

"Hey! Be nice to your brother, Imai!" Chiho tried to resolve the situation by pouting and swatting at her friend. Eventually, the girl yielded and her brother's head sprung up, gasping for air.

"Fine!" She plopped herself down in her chair. "But guys, I have something cool I wanna show you." Imai reached down and picked up her school bag. It was a rather large, dark blue messenger bag, stuffed with something.

"Snooping around places we shouldn't again, are we?" Matsuo tapped the butt end of his pencil to his chin meditatively.

"No one caaaaaares!" she groaned in reply. "Just take a look at what I have!"

She picked her head up and glanced around, turning her intense gaze to each of her companions, one by one. The girl's face was one of mischief and pride, with an intense smirk and sparkling eyes. When her eyes rested on Lucifer, he avoided eye contact and shifted in his seat, the discomfort of the chair against his back returning to him.

_What the hell is she so proud of?_ Her expression was worrying him. He sipped his coffee in order to look uninterested.

When Imai reached into her bag, he couldn't help but peek as she began to take it out. Lucifer wasn't able to see what she was pulling at from the other side of the table, but it must have been something big and fabric, stuck at the bottom of the bag, as it was trapped underneath her schoolbooks. He took another sip of his coffee.

"Shit." she muttered beneath her breath. Imai began piling her battered textbooks onto the table.

"Ew. Imai, it smells like gym clothes." Chiho looked rather curious, but was put off by the smell of whatever was in that bag. Urushihara sipped his drink again, anxious.

"Okay," Imai started, her eyes still full of glee. "I was snooping around one of the less-visited areas of the school when I found this gem." She lifted the object from the bag.

Lucifer's stomach fell. He knew what it was the minute she lifted it from the bag. The deep black fabric, the straps, the silver buckles…

_That's my old coat!_

* * *

**_At last! The penguin delivers something interesting! From now on, you can expect more hijinks and difficulties. And since I'm on spring break right now, I might even produce two or three more chapters within the next week. _**

**_If you have anything to say at all, do comment. I love hearing from you guys. Your criticism is appreciated, if you have any._**

**_Have a nice spring!_**

**_-topshelfpenguin_**


	7. Chapter 6

_Chapter 6_

"Urushihara, are you all right?" Chiho stopped in the sidewalk, turning to face the fallen angel with a concerned expression. They had left the group behind in order to walk to the MgRonalds and now stood two blocks from their destination.

"Huh?" he jumped and Chiho flinched. She seemed not only concerned, but slightly fearful at that time, standing at a slightly greater distance than usual.

"I asked whether you're okay. You look a bit… off at the moment." Her brow was crumpled and a frown dominated her normally cheery face.

Urushihara certainly wasn't "okay". _What kind of kid snoops around schools alone in their spare time?!_ That Imai girl was apparently willing to go to great lengths just for entertainment. If she had noticed his shocked reaction to the coat, she was of the sort who would become nosy, create trouble for the demon king, and cause him to receive all of the blame. Lucifer let out a troubled breath and looked down at the sidewalk. He felt disgusted at having to deal with this. Just how much trouble could she cause them?

Urushihara looked back up at Chiho. He hadn't been aware of his appearance beofre: wide eyes, a clenched jaw, and pale skin. He could sense Chiho's anxiety at seeing him in such a state and knew that he probably looked like he was going insane. Any attempt to contain annoyance failed.

_Just when I thought that my life would be free of trouble! What if Maou gets involved? I'm screwed! Should I tell Chiho? _The demon general looked at the girl before him, who at once both shrunk back from him and offered him her consolation.

_Who am I kidding? Maou will tell her everything anyway._

"Chiho," he spoke more directly and seriously than usual, his tone deeper. "The coat that Imai found belongs to me."

The Chiho's timidness was soon replaced by slightly panicked concern. She grabbed Urushihara by the shirt and pulled him a few feet into an alley. In contrast to his usual reaction to being pushed around, the general made no sound, remaining apathetic as Chiho voiced her concern.

"She can't trace it back to you, right, Urushihara? Right?!" Chiho's eyes begged for a simple resolution to the problem. She was evidently as worried about the situation as Urushihara was, or possibly even more so.

"She doesn't know that I was living in the school before, right?" His tone was matter-of-fact. For once, the demon was actually interested in his situation, his eyes wide and full of life.

"No, I'm pretty sure not… so we're good then?" She stared at him hopefully.

"No. Because she'll eventually realize that the coat has holes in the back." He leaned against the alley wall and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Holes?" She paused for a moment, during which the fallen angel stared at her with an annoyed eyebrow raise. "Oh right… your wings."

A let out a sigh and a tiny smirk played on his face. While he felt inconvenienced by the situation, this was just the sort of excitement he was looking for.

_This is sort of fun, _he thought. _I can teach that Imai kid not to mess with demons._

Urushihara continued. "Anyway, we're gonna need to get that back – for two reasons. First of all, I want my coat back. Secondly, we can't let her learn _too_ much about us, can we?" Although he tried to look cool and serious, the Lucifer's voice and manner revealed his anxiety and slight giddiness at the prospect. He was tired of sitting back and living a boring life.

Retrieval wasn't the only thing on his mind – Urushihara was ready to start scheming.

Chiho looked slightly disturbed watching him. She took a half step back and stiffened where she stood. Urushihara tried to regain his normal expression of apathy.

"What do you mean, 'we'?" Chiho asked, obviously wanting nothing to do with the immature general's plans. "And how do you expect to get it back?"

"You'll show me in and we'll grab it out of her locker, of course."

"WHAT?"

"Fine. I'll do it by myself."

"I don't trust you in my school." Chiho glared at him with puffed out cheeks.

"You trusted Maou." Urushihara wanted to see how Chiho would react to him comparing himself to the demon king. To Chiho, the two were virtual opposites, with the demon king the girl's savior and the fallen angel her almost-killer. How then would she respond to the statement?

"Maybe so, but I'm not helping _you_."

Urushihara was disappointed by the result at first, but soon observed Chiho turning her face away, cheeks livid with embarrassment and frustration. The two began walking again, Chiho keeping her face turned away from Urushihara.

A moment later, she turned back to looking at him, her blush having disappeared.

"… Urushihara, if you really want your coat back, is there any way of getting it _without_ stealing?" Lucifer looked at her with a slightly sarcastic expression. Maybe there was, but he sure didn't want to find a different method for doing things.

"Not that I know of." he made eye contact, but not too much, and turned his face serious. It was a foolproof lying method that he had perfected over the years. He could sense Chiho's disappointment at that moment, smirking internally as she started to speak.

"Is that so…I don't totally trust you on that, but I'll put that aside." Urushihara's face returned to its default apathy as Chiho let out a light sigh. Her face contorted into a pout as she continued. "Just don't make too much trouble, and I won't tell Maou. Okay?"

_What is this?_ He thought. _Is Chiho actually letting this by?_

He glanced at the girl. She seemed annoyed on the surface, but he could also sense embarrassment on her part. _Perhaps she is doing this for Maou in some way_, he thought before clearing Chiho's curious behavior from his mind altogether.

"Okay." He said, looking down with a slight expression of triumph before returning to his blank expression. He was unsure how to further the conversation. "Uh…" Lucifer looked up again.

Before he could say anything more, his companion had walked into the MgRonalds. Urushihara stood in front of the restaurant, slightly surprised. It was unlike Chiho to act so forgiving towards him. Something must have been bothering her.

As Maou's work shifts were different today, Lucifer didn't have to walk back to the apartment with the man. He sighed in relief and began his was home, making the decision to retrieve the coat at the next chance he got. Plans to retrieve the coat were not the only thoughts forming in Urushihara's mind, for how could a demon resist this opportunity? He smirked at the thought of getting her back for taking what was rightfully his.

* * *

_**I greatly apologize for the delay. I hit major writer's block with this chapter, as you can probably tell from how short it is. As always, your comments, criticisms, and reviews are greatly appreciated. Thank you for your continued reading!**_

**- topshelfpenguin**


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